Author: Mrs Ferguson

This morning we had the absolute pleasure of enjoying a morning with Rachel and Duncan from Pitch, Pulse and Magic. They both play string instruments – Rachel plays the violin and Duncan plays the cello. The instruments are related – they looked like little and large beside each other! We heard lots of pieces of classical music, some which we recognised and some which were new to us. The music really did sound so beautiful. We chatted about classical music, the role music plays in films and adverts and how the instruments actually create the notes. By enjoying this music session, we were also doing a little science as we were exploring vibration, some literacy when we looked at metaphors and HWB when we thought about how music makes us feel. Megan, Cameron and Boyd even played ‘Hot Cross Buns’ simply by tapping a glass of water with a pen – amazing eh?!

We enjoyed listening to the theme from Harry Potter – always a favourite! And there was lots of toes tapping along to ‘Under the Sea’ from The Little Mermaid. We listened to a slow, mournful melody and it made us feel much quieter, calmer and it seemed quite sad. It turned out that this was from the funeral scene of an opera – so we got the mood just right. We could almost hear the sound of people crying from the violin. There was even a piece of music that showed a real change of emotion – it started off quite light and jolly, the pitch was high and the bow of the violin and cello almost seemed to skip over the strings but then the tone became so much lower and the bow movements were harsh and stronger – we guessed that the music was telling us that something was not going at all well! This is called the musical structure of the piece.

Antonio Vivaldi was a very famous composer who wrote pieces of music to describe the seasons. We looked at the poem linked to this and worked with Rachel and Duncan to suggest ways in which the violin and cello could recreate this. The class were great at suggesting ways in which the instruments could be used to sound like lightning, the breeze and the murmuring rivers.

Everybody in our class thoroughly enjoyed the music session. How lucky are we to have this experience in our classroom to brighten up a rather damp and dreary Tuesday morning!

Many thanks to Rachel and Duncan from Pitch, Pulse and Magic for bringing this experience to us.

Ethan headed off to New Galloway Golf Club last Thursday, accompanied by his dad, to represent Leswalt Primary at the Regional Primary Schools’ Golf Competition. He enjoyed a day of glorious sunshine on a stunning golf course. He demonstrated just what a responsible citizen he is by taking part and being a good ambassador for our school. Thanks Ethan! Glad you had a great day too!

On Thursday the 18^th of May, Leswalt Primary did so much outdoor learning – it was astounding! It was National Outdoor Education Day and it was a big hit with the pupils and teachers!

Firstly everyone headed outside and enjoyed  some maths work. P1 headed off to the Wetlands with Mrs Smith to do some 2D shape hunting, P2-4 went angle spotting in the playground and P5-7  We made 3D shapes like cubes, cuboids, triangular prisms, pyramids  etc using twigs, sticks and elastic bands then thinking about their properties. Everyone was so busy. Jack remarked ” It didn’t really feel like work – it was so fun!”

After break time, P2-4 worked on some Literacy activities with creative writing at its heart, P5-7 headed to the Wetlands to enjoy chill time with their books. Then they were mimed with sticks to explore metaphors and started writing poems about our surroundings using syllables. They are planning to go back to finish them next week. There they meth the P1 2D Shape Hunters who were just making their way back to school having found their ‘treasure’ – thanks Mrs Smith for the sweetie bags!

After lunch P1-4 worked on some athletics skills and P5-7 played netball.  AT 2pm  p6-7 headed inside to their final session of internet safety and p5 were painting  in the willow dome. P1-4 had some parachute fun, followed up by a quiz by the play trail.

“We think it was good because the fresh air made us all relax and it did not put us under pressure with anything” commented Charlotte and Iona when asked how they felt the day went.

Jack in P3 gave the day 5/5 stars – praise indeed!

We can’t wait to get outdoors again.We’re Leswalt Primary pupils and staff – get us outta here!

On Wednesday 10^th May we enjoyed a whole school event learning about the Buddhist celebration of Wesak. Boys and girls came to school wearing white (at least it was white at the start of the school day!) as this is something which Buddhists do to celebrate the Buddha’s birth at Wesak. Our whole school assembly taught us a little about the story behind the Buddha and Noah and Gregor came up to help ‘bathe the Buddha’ just as Buddhists would do on this special day. Luke, Iona and Logan also played the Blindfold Feeding Game – Iona and Luke had been told NOT to eat the marshmallows, Logan happily munched a few! This was to show that unless you are helped to see the truth, you cannot be expected to know it. Buddha searched for his truth. It is known as Enlightenment.

The whole day was filled with fun activities linked to Wesak; from symmetry and angles work to recreate the symbol of the Noble Eightfold Path, roleplay to explore greed, hatred and ignorance, meditation and yoga exercises to help calm the mind, research tasks to produce factfiles to lantern-making. The pupils took a little time to think about what they had learnt over the course of the day and write this as a Buddha bubble, with some pupils saying they would try to use some of the calming exercises next time they felt a bit on the grumpy side!

It was a busy, but fun-filled day!

On Sunday the 7/5/17 it was Leswalt Primary’s Cream Tea .So many people came to enjoy a fun afternoon in the glorious sunshine! There were many fun stalls to browse around: Guess how many sweeties in the jar, guess the teddy bear’s birthday, a book stall, bottle stall, fabulous face painting , gorgeous hairstyles , BBQ,  a delicious baking stall , the raffle with lots of great prizes , a 50-50 lottery, the ever-popular lollipop game and glitter tattoos. The winner of the teddy bear’s birthday was Jenna Calderwood – she got the right date- and Jamie Drennan successfully guessed the number of sweeties in the jar.

A fantastic £985 was raised! HUGE thanks to all the hard-working parents and pupils involved in the organisation of this very successful fund-raiser. Brilliant teamwork.

Report by Alistair Brown and Millie Smith

 

On Thursday 4th May, Leswalt Primary P5-7 headed off on the service bus to Soleburn to meet with Michael to get some expert advice about plants.

Firstly, we headed into the park and let off some steam playing on the slide, swings and roundabout – very cool fun even when you are 9-12 year olds! Michael popped out to get us and our tour of the Garden Centre started!

He told us about perennials, annuals, evergreens, shrubs and trees and so much more. We got some advice about which plants to put in our new planters for the front door and which compost type to use. This is a job for Friday afternoon! It was interesting to learn about the debate around using peat within compost – something we didn’t know anything about. Inside Soleburn, Michael pointed out the cacti, vegetable plants and lots of indoor plants. It really is amazing just how many different species of plant there are. In class, we have a large 3D display of the parts of a flower and some of us were able to spot these on the plants we saw.

After selecting our plants for the tubs, we paid and headed back over to the park to enjoy the glorious sunshine.

Finally we headed back along the road to wait for the bus. An elderly lady stopped to speak to us; her name is Janet Loch and she told us that she taught at Leswalt Primary for 6 years from 1959! She was delighted to see Leswalt pupils out and about in their local area!

All in all, it was a perfect way to spend a Thursday morning. Hope you like our new front door planters!

P1-4 enjoyed an excellent visit from Kathryn Purchase with her History Alive presentation! A whole morning was spent finding out all about Vikings and the children gained a real insight into what life was really like back then.  We found out who the Vikings actually were (the good and the bad ones!), where they came from and where they travelled to.  The children found out about what they wore, the types of food they ate, what their homes were like, how they travelled and the hierarchy within the Viking community.  This was a real hands-on experience for the children.  They got to try on costumes, weave on a loom and even re-enact a Viking battle.  A fun day was had by all!

“This was a really fun visit and I enjoyed acting out our battle scene!” Finlay P4

“My day at school was exciting and I liked getting the chance to dress as a Viking and hold all the weapons!” Jack P3

“It was really cool getting to see all the Viking stuff like the swords!” Breagh P2

Wow wow wow! Once in a lifetime opportunity just happened to come our way this morning (ok there had been a great deal of groundwork done in preparing for this by Ms Whorlow, and Mrs Henry had used some of her Easter holidays and an evening to make this happen). Four members of the filming crew of ‘Keepers’ agreed to come into Portpatrick Primary and meet with them and Leswalt for an extra-special, ‘never experienced before’ Careers in the Community chat! Unfortunately, cast members were busy filming on set in Stranraer (but we were presented with original posters signed by the main stars!)

Joe and Kel are screenwriters and actors, Andy and Ade are both producers and they shared with the pupils some of their experiences in the very interesting hour long chat. The pupils asked some fabulous questions, keen to know more. You never know; perhaps the next generations of screenwriters, producers, makeup artists and actors are to be found in our pupils!

 

The sun shone for Leswalt Primary’s trip to Logan Botanic Gardens this morning. Every year the Gardens hold an open week for schools and two of their Rangers, who are based in Edinburgh usually, come down to lead some nature-based activities. We were excited at the prospect of meeting Kath and Kate again and enjoying the Gardens.

P1-4 headed off with Kath. First of all they enjoyed a mini nature walk. They then needed to do a Texture Hunt, working in small groups to look for 3 things which were spongy, firm, shiny, dull, hard etc.

They then used microscope slides to take a closer look at the leaves of the giant rhubarb plants. The underneath of those leaves are so spiky! We think that’s to put off any little creatures who fancy snacking on them!

Next they worked to make a 3D map of Logan Gardens in little groups using twigs, leaves, ribbon provided by Kath and lots of other bits and pieces which they found. Some of the groups got very arty with this!

Finally, and very excitingly, Kath had a sponge which had a ‘Magic Potion’ on it! Each pupil used a little piece of sponge to dab some of this potion on their nose, which Kath said would help them to smell much easier! The boys and girls then went on a Smell Hunt finding lavender, eucalyptus

and something very peppery. The potion worked its magic!

P5-7 were led by Kate. Initially we headed to a clearing and discussed different types of maps. Kate used a compass to set North on the grass and we filled in the other compass points. We were then set the task of re-creating a visual 3D map of the quadrant we were standing in using sticks, leaves, flowers from the ground. The finished article was very creative.

To head to our next activity base, we used a compass in pairs to set our bearings. We needed to locate North with the compass, then set the bezel to the bearing given and follow the direction shown by the arrow and no one got lost!

Finally, we talked about scale using maps and ways in which we could recreate our own maps of the area using our artistic and scientific skills. Kate let us choose whether we wanted to use the Art or Science resources. We then needed to stick our recording on the correct position on the scale. Some of did bark and leaf rubbings, leaf prints, used bug viewers to take a closer look at snake and flat-backed millipedes, tested the PH of soil and took a weather recording – a varied response!

We all had such a lovely morning together. Looking forward to April 2018 already!

What a wonderful morning Euan, Alistair, Ethan, Jack and Jamie had! Accompanied by Mrs Smith, the boys travelled into Stranraer Academy to take part in a mini tournament organised by  Stranraer FC  organiser Allan Jenkins. The Leswalt boys joined forces with Rowan, Rhian and Lachlan (their Portpatrick team-mates) and played 3 games; winning 3-0 against Sandhead and drawing 1-1 with St Josephs and 0-0 with Glenluce/Castle Kennedy. The boys then got to have a closer look at the SPL trophies and read the inscriptions and everyone there was awarded with a commemorative medal. A great morning out! There was an official photographer there too so keep your eyes peeled for the next Free Press!